As time gets closer and closer to my big race, I get more excited, and even had a little race fever. So on a whim, I sign up to run the local Komen Race for the Cure 5K in Plano. Up at 6:00 and out the door before 7:00am, I head off to go race.
The race was packed, OMG, the number of people doing this. Like LLS, Susan G Komen is a worthy cause. It was great to see so many people out there. Walkers, runners, moms/dads. Even little kids.
They had staggered start times for serious(timed runners) and not serious(non timed) runners. I guess I fell into the serious category, since I wanted to be timed. I missed that start time and ended up starting with everyone else.
The horn went off and off we went. I was so far back it took close to 10-15 minutes
to get to the starting line, and timer on my shoe started.
I begin the race just walking a little, then jogging a little, zig zagging around people to get past the major masses of really slow walkers and strollers.
Let me say, I have nothing against walkers and strollers, what annoys me is the packs( 5 or more) of women blocking the entire road and going at a snails pace.
They line up side by side walking. Let me also say I am all for girl friends, but come on. If you know someone is coming up behind you and they are at a faster pace, move a little so they can get by.. Ok, now that I have ranted..Back to the point.
Normally I would have run my heart out, to see how fast I could be. But this time I just wanted to expose myself to some more race time. So I decided to just do it at a normal pace. I did intervals for the first mile or two, and then walked for a little bit, and around the beginning of the last quarter mile I kicked it up a notch running to cross the finish line. The humidity was crazy, but thankfully we had some cloud cover so it wasn't completely unbearable. They had lots of water, no sports drinks.. I wished I had packed a bottle, but I didn't. Looking back and comparing this to the 5K I did in March, totally different.
This time my head and my competitiveness kicked in really big. I began this race knowing full well I was just going to take it easy, no major stress on the legs. But it seems every time I saw a person running when I was walking I thought to myself. " You should be running!! You are smaller, bigger, faster, stronger, etc. "
Insert which ever adjective you want to... I battled with this most of the first two miles but then around 2.5 I finally told my self to shut up and just do it.
So I did. I read all the signs of who everyone was running for. People like Jennifer Cunningham, and there were lots of Nanas. I stopped being competitive and started being thankful for my own health and for my family's health.
It was a good race, I felt good. Not once did I want to quit and it helped me prepare for my BIG race just 13 days away.
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